PRICE-GROWTH PRESSURE INCREASES
VASAK TARPOSHYAN
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on May 09, 2008
Armenia
During the recent times the price-growth evidently pressurizes the
domestic product market. If before the price-growth in Armenia
fluctuated within 3%, we must underscore that during the recent years
it is significantly high.
According to the official data, the price-growth of the last year made
up 6,5%. At the beginning of the year the situation tightened.
According to the observations of the statistic service, as compared to
the same period of the last year the prices have increased by around
11%. The high prices of the products of vital importance are
conditioned by both internal and external factors. The prices of the
products are continuously increasing in the international market that
has become a matter of concern even in the developed countries.
Being a country of limited resources that imports lots of products
Armenia is very vulnerable towards the influences of the foreign
market. It is not accidental that particularly these products become
expensive in the internal market.
The maximum, that the government can do in this situation, is the
mitigation of the influence of price-growth. They can achieve this by
monetary-loan policy and implementation of programs with social trends.
This is probably the only way to restrain the price-growth, and to
support the vulnerable group.
That is why the rumors saying that the increase of the pension on
January was senseless is not right. Doubtlessly had the pensions not
been increased the life of this layer would have been worse.
According to the data of the statistic service in the same period of
the previous year the price of wheat has grown by 45 drams, high-class
flour ` by around 65%, and the first-class ` by 55%. The prices of
these products started to fluctuate between 250 to 350 drams, from the
beginning of April as compared to 160-209 drams of the previous year.
The prices of different types of bread have increased by 40-45%, which
means from 250 to 430.
The price-growth is also high in the market of butter and oil,
respectively 71-51% within a year. The price of butter has reached 2376
drams this year as compared to 1565 drams of the last year and oil
prices have reached 968 drams as compared to 566 drams a liter of the
last year. Whereas not only is there no prospect for the stabilization
of the prices but also ` slow increase.
It’s worth mentioning that the price-growth of the before mentioned
products started last year. If from the beginning of 2007 the price of
wheat increased by 36 drams, from January 2008 it has increased by 9
drams.
The picture is the same in terms of the other products ` the first
class flour has increased by 60 drams from April to December of the
previous year, and by 10 drams from January 2008.
These developments testify to the fact that during the recent times the
price-growth in the domestic market has been mitigated. But it doesn’t
give any grounds to unwind, because the price-growth of the before
mentioned products have been rather abrupt in one year.
The price-growth in the product market is also conditioned by internal
factors. The increase of meat-product is also very noticeable. In
April, for example, the price of pork increased by 9% and beef by 4%.
On the other hand season also has some influence on the consumer
market. It is manifested especially on the agricultural products.
Especially the prices of the vegetables have evidently decreased. And
the prices of fruits have decreased by 8%.
The price-growth of non-food products and some services has been added
to the before mentioned tendencies manifested in the market of
food-products. The pressure of the price-growth in this sphere has
increased especially after the stop of the gas subsidizations.’